Lawmakers had planned to request a full-blown state audit of Colorado's child-welfare system but postponed it this week after talking to the head of the state Department of Human Services.

The state auditor, however, says she intends to audit the system — which has not been reviewed in at least 15 years — this summer even if no request is made.

A coalition of lawmakers looking for solutions to the troubled child-welfare system had planned to submit a request this week for an audit. Sen. Linda Newell, D-Littleton, and others had said the scope of their request would include how Colorado is spending federal and state dollars to investigate and prevent child abuse, and possibly the workloads of caseworkers.

The group said they hoped to fast-track the audit, and by submitting their request this week, they would have made the deadline for potential approval from the legislative audit committee at its first meeting of the legislative session.

But Newell and Rep. Dianne Primavera, D-Broomfield, said they postponed the request after Newell talked to Reggie Bicha, executive director of the state human-services department. Now, the lawmakers are limiting the scope of the audit and might submit it later this legislative session, which opened Wednesday, Primavera said.

"It doesn't mean the idea of an audit is off the drawing board," she said. "But we want to be thoughtful about the kinds of issues we need to look at."

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State Auditor Dianne Ray intends to audit the child-welfare division of the Colorado Department of Human Services this summer, when a narrower, statutorily required audit of the state child-ombudsman office was already scheduled. Such an audit, however, could start sooner if requested by legislators.

"The state auditor is aware there are a lot of people that have concerns about the child- welfare system," said auditor's spokeswoman Jenny Atchley. "It's definitely on her radar."

The legislators began considering the need for a state audit after an investigative series by The Denver Post into Colorado's system for protecting abused and neglected children. The newspaper found that since 2007, 175 children in Colorado have died of abuse and neglect. Of those, 72 had families or caregivers who were known to human services.

In the past six years, child- protection workers in the state also did not follow state policy and regulations more than half the time when they tried to protect children who eventually ended up dead, The Post found. The state also lacks the ability to track caseworkers' workloads, how many caseworkers are working in the state and whether they have been disciplined, the investigation revealed.

Bicha and Gov. John Hickenlooper declined to talk to The Post about the possibility of an audit.

Hickenlooper mentioned improving the child-welfare system in his State of the State speech Thursday.

Bicha's staff released this statement: "We are continually looking for ways to improve the state's child protection system. New ideas and innovations from our partners, stakeholders and legislative colleagues are always welcome and appreciated. All options remain on the table."

Newell said she is "refining and working with the department" on the audit request but also consulting other stakeholders. "We are getting their opinion in the areas that would be most fruitful, but they definitely are not the only source we are talking to," she said.

Even if lawmakers had fast-tracked an audit request, the review would probably take six months — past the close of the legislative session in May.

The average state audit costs from about $30,000 up to $175,000, depending on the scope.

The coalition of lawmakers taking the lead on child-welfare issues this session, which also includes Sen. Irene Aguilar, D-Denver, and Sen. Jeanne Nicholson, D-Black Hawk, said their main focus now is on getting relevant information from the Human Services Department.

The system lacks big-picture data and analysis that could help form proposals for change, those lawmakers said.

"If something doesn't go like you want it to go, you have to do the analysis," said Aguilar, chairwoman of a Senate committee on human services.

The state might consider hiring an outside firm to help with data analysis on workload for caseworkers, caseworker training, foster parents and complaints about child abuse, she said.

Collaboration among lawmakers and state and county human-services officials is key, Nicholson said.

"One of the things that worries me is we are going to polarize this conversation," she said, "and if we do, we're going to hurt the kids."

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